“Every person who shall knowingly advertise, print, publish, distribute, or circulate, or knowingly cause to be advertised, printed, published, distributed, or circulated, any pamphlet, printed paper, book, newspaper, notice, advertisement, or reference, containing words or language, giving or conveying any notice, hint, or reference to any person, or to the name of any person, real or fictitious, from whom, or to any place, house, shop, or office where any poison, drug, mixture, preparation, medicine or noxious thing, or any instrument or means whatever, or any advice, directions, information, or knowledge, may be obtained for the purpose of causing or procuring the miscarriage of any woman pregnant with child, shall be punished,” etc. etc.[135]
The above statute, however, such is the public sentiment on this point, is not enforced, or is daily evaded. The press, if it choose, may almost annihilate the crime; it now openly encourages it.
It has been often alleged, and oftener supposed, that physicians in good standing not unfrequently and without lawful justification, induce criminal abortion. This statement, whatever exceptional cases may exist, is wickedly false. The pledge against abortion, to the observance of which Hippocrates compelled his followers by oath,[136] has ever been considered binding, even more strongly of late centuries. The crime is recognized as such in almost every code of medical ethics; its known commission has always been followed by ignominious expulsion from medical fellowships and fraternity. If this direct penalty be at any time escaped, it is only through lack of decisive proof, bare suspicion even of the crime insuring an actual sundering of all existing professional friendships and ties; a loss that subsequent proof of innocence could hardly restore. Such is the unanimous feeling of the profession; to its credit be it said, that with but a single exception,[137] and this to his eternal disgrace, its writers are all agreed, abstractly considering the subject, on the sanctity of fœtal life. The instances where physicians in good standing are guilty of the crime, are of rare occurrence; the error that has prevailed on this point, originating from the self-assumed titles of notorious quacks and knaves. But no condemnation can be too strong for the physician who has thus forgotten his honor; who has used to destroy life, that sacred knowledge by which he was pledged to preserve it.
The criminal abuses likely to arise from the procurement of justifiable abortion by medical men, are so numerous, their own liability to be thought by the public criminally careless of fœtal life, or skeptical concerning its existence, is so great, that the subject is worthy special consideration. This I shall now devote to it.
VI. ITS INNOCENT ABETTORS.
We have referred to an apparent disregard of fœtal life, obtaining in the medical profession, as a prominent cause of the prevalence of criminal abortion. We now proceed to show that the opinion is not unfounded.
Premature labor, or obstetric abortion, may be justifiably induced by the physician for one of two reasons; either to save the life of the mother or that of her child. In each case it must be, absolutely and only, to save a life.
Performed for the child’s sake, it is evident that the operation can be only available during the last three months of pregnancy, for then only can the fœtus with any degree of probability be considered viable. We grant that there are a few cases on record where, born during the sixth month and even in the fifth, the child has survived; but it is equally certain, despite the popular notion concerning the mortality of eighth-month children, that the later the operation can be safely delayed, the better the chance for the infant’s life.
The rules for the induction of premature labor must, of course, vary for different cases. In this early stage of the inquiry, it is perhaps impossible to state them precisely, but they may still be approximately arrived at.